The
makeup is easily the most amazing part of the Planet of
the Apes Saga. Key actors would spend hours before
filming each day on set to have makeup applied. Makeup
consisted of a pliable foam latex appliance attached to
the skin with a variety of hair and other such items
affixed to it. The appliances were so life like they
enabled realistic facial impressions to be conved through
these false skins. Because of time constraints and
expense not all of the actors wore makeup. Many of the
background characters wore pullover masks. In theory
these actors would be in the background and their less
realistic masks would be not visible to the viewer. But
clearly in Beneath the Planet of the Apes the characters
wearing makeup are seen clearly next to the ones wearing
masks in many scenes. Pullover masks were made for the
Chimpanzees, Gorillias, and Orangautauns; however the
Gorilla ones are far more common as far more Gorillias
were needed in vast battle scenes in the second Apes
movie.The actual latex rubber facial appliances are
sometimes seen forsale. Usually they are without the hair
or fur. One should be careful not to confuse the
originals from the movies and tv show with the ones
marketed as part of commercial makeup appliance kits. In
addition facial appliances were made for a special 30th
anniversary Apes gathering and they are often easily
confused with originals from the movies.

Costumes

The costumes in the
first, second, and last Planet of the Apes film were all
the same. The gorilla soldier costume consisted of a dark
leather vest, gloves, leather boots, a leather ammo
strap, and an undersuit composed of paints and a shirt.
Background Gorilla costumes were used in abundance in the
second Apes film Beneath the Planet of the Apes. These
costumes are constructed of a cheaper vinyl material for
the vest and gloves; in additionn the ammo strap is not
composed of real leather pouches but rather just folded
over pieces of leather to simulate the effect. The
background Gorilla costumes were intended to be used in
scenes with vast numbers of Gorilla soldiers and in a way
that they were not clearly up front with the main Gorilla
costumes. However in several scenes during the various
Gorilla soldier marches into the mutant layer one can see
the main leather gorilla soldier costumes clearly side by
side the cheaper vinyl ones. The vinyl vested gorillas
usually all wore the chepear pullover mask.

The orangautan and Chimpanzee costumes in the first
second and last Planet of the Apes films were the same.

In Conquest of the Planet of the Apes the Ape costumes
were entirely different. They were all jumpsuits. The
Gorrilla's wore red jumpsuits and the Chimpanzees wore
the green ones. These jumpsuits are similar to the style
of jumpsuits used in various other Tweenith Century Fox
productions of the late 60's and 70's such as Time
Tunnel.

Weapons

As with almost every production the vast majority of the
weapons used are nonfiring. The ape weapons that fired were in
essence real firearms hidden within a metal shell that was
painted with a woodstroke finish. Almost all of the fring Ape
guns have that near all wooden apperance which is due to clever
painting of the metal shell. Several styles of guns were used by
the Apes. At least two styles of rifles and one pistol style were
used. Stunt rifles were constructed especially for use in Beneath
the Planet of the Apes. Such stunt rifles are composed mostly of
wood with a crude strap attached to them.

For further information about the props
and costumes from Planet of the Apes or to purchase something
visit specifically

www.scifihollywood.com
featuring a large gallery of Planet of the Apes costumes and
weapons, some of which are for sale